The Smoke Pit with 50501 Veterans

50501 Veterans
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The Smoke Pit is a live veterans' roundtable from 50501 Veterans. Hosted by Katie Chorbak and Carl Able. Produced by Crayon Eater Media. Veterans, military families and guests take on the issues hitting the veteran community: VA care, deported veterans, war powers, elections, and what the oath still asks of us. Issues over party. Straight talk over spin. Live Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8 to 10PM ET, on YouTube and Twitch. The podcast episode posts after every broadcast. Candidates who join us are interviewed on the issues. 50501 Veterans does not endorse candidates. Questions for the panel: 50501vets.com/ask

  1. 5d ago

    Two Veterans Thrown Out of Trump's Pendleton Rally: Matt McDaniel and Alan Buckalew

    **Two Veterans Thrown Out of Trump's Pendleton Rally: Matt McDaniel and Alan Buckalew** The Smoke Pit with 50501 Veterans · Saturday, October 24, 2026 · Pillar II: Democracy, Peace, and Constitutional Duty **Host:** Tim Boivin, lead editor, 50501 Veterans Substack **Guests:** Matt McDaniel, Navy veteran; Alan Buckalew, medically retired Army paratrooper and candidate for South Carolina House District 28 **Panel:** Katie Chorbak, president, 50501 Veterans; Sam Gibbons, state liaison, 50501 South Carolina ### The short answer On Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Navy veteran Matt McDaniel stood up at President Trump's midterm rally in the T. Ed Garrison Arena in Pendleton, South Carolina, and yelled four words toward the stage: "You're the criminal." He says a man behind him pulled him into a headlock while a second man punched the side of his head, and that he went to the hospital with neck injuries and a damaged voice. From the stage, Trump said it takes courage to do that at a Trump rally, "but he got whacked." The Anderson County Sheriff's Office is investigating and no one has been charged with the assault. McDaniel says a detective told him the department is also investigating him for breach of the peace, and asked him whether he had been paid $250 to be there. Ten days out from the November 3 midterms, both veterans land in the same place: go anyway, and vote. ### What we cover McDaniel tells it himself: why he went to his first Trump rally at all, in a livestock arena on the campus he graduated from, what the room felt like before anything happened, the moment he stood up, and what he believes the man holding him was trying to do. The part that still bothers him most is that police pulled the men off him, walked all three of them out, and he says nobody took the other two men's names. Alan Buckalew was a few rows up and was removed for shouting his own question. He puts the number ejected that night at a dozen or more, credits the officers for moving fast, and says an officer does not get to pick and choose who to arrest based on the color of someone's hat. Sam Gibbons walks through how 50501 Veterans had a call to action on screen inside the hour, and raises what he noticed in the video: he believes both men who assaulted McDaniel were veterans themselves. Katie Chorbak then asks everyone what keeps them in this work, which is where the episode stops being about one rally. ### Chapters | Time | Chapter | | --- | --- | | 0:00 | Four words in Pendleton | | 1:00 | Who is here, and where 50501 Veterans stands | | 2:31 | This week: a Utah voter-roll ruling, Iran strike plans, VA scar ratings | | 4:25 | Meet Matt McDaniel and Alan Buckalew, and why they went in | | 8:20 | A wrestling match crossed with a church service | | 12:56 | The USA chant after every ejection | | 14:03 | Cowards, and who the police walked back to their seats | | 16:05 | "You're the criminal," then the headlock | | 18:48 | Buckalew's vantage point, and his own ejection | | 23:59 | How many were thrown out that night | | 25:52 | Nobody named, and McDaniel says he is the one investigated | | 28:47 | The $250 paid-protester claim | | 30:18 | Legal bills, medical bills, and finding a lawyer | | 31:10 | Buckalew on running for the South Carolina House | | 34:11 | The whisper network: inside the hour | | 37:45 | Were both assailants veterans? | | 40:25 | Every accusation is an admission | | 43:05 | What keeps you in it | | 52:09 | Advice for speaking up at a rally | | 53:39 | Why the vote is still the big thing | | 55:23 | Close and safety brief | ### About the show The Smoke Pit is the live show of 50501 Veterans, airing Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8PM ET. Veterans and allies on the issues, with the receipts. Questions for the panel at 50501vets.com/ask. The Smoke Pit is produced by 50501 Veterans, which does not endorse, oppose, or support any candidate or party. We cover issues, not campaigns. We stand firmly for nonviolence.

  2. Oct 18

    SITREP: DOJ Sues California Over Mail Ballots, the Iran Toll Hits 21, VA Union Contract Dead

    SITREP: DOJ Sues California Over Mail Ballots, the Iran Toll Hits 21, VA Union Contract Dead The Smoke Pit with 50501 Veterans · Saturday, October 17, 2026 · Pillar II: Democracy, Peace, and Constitutional Duty Host: Carl Able, media and communications director, 50501 Veterans Panel: Katie Chorbak, president of 50501 Veterans · Bryan Winter · Tim Boivin, editor of the 50501 Substack THE SHORT ANSWER The Justice Department has lost its voter roll cases more than two dozen times running, so it changed targets. On Thursday it sued California and went after the ballots themselves, asking that mail ballots from people on its own likely noncitizen list be set aside. LA County's clerk would not even plug in the thumb drive the DOJ sent. Six days earlier a federal judge in Washington threw out the DOJ's voter roll citizenship check policy, and Nevada checked the 185 voters DHS flagged and said they all appear to be citizens. The panel's read is that losing is not the point. Pressure on election workers is the point, and the states are a thinner guardrail than they look, because some are inviting the DOJ in. WHAT WE COVER Seventeen days out from November 3. Tim Boivin argues prelude is prologue, that the real window is between election night and the swearing in of a new Congress, and that the guardrails are gone. Katie Chorbak pushes back on the idea that states will hold, pointing at Georgia asking the DOJ to send investigators and at Florida's own SAVE Act. Bryan Winter takes apart the martial law talk, noting it gives no authority over elections at all, and reads the whole thing as pretext building. Then the war. The Pentagon raised its own Iran war death toll to 21, weeks after the Secretary of Defense called reporting on an undercount a complete lie. An American died in a strike on Riyadh's airport and the President says the US may join Saudi Arabia's fight against the Houthis. Congress has not voted. Carl calls concealing those deaths the most dishonorable thing the country could do. Katie turns it on the audience: if you really want to thank a veteran for their service, hound your congressman for better benefits. Then the rest of the pit. More than 300,000 VA employees were told the AFGE master agreement no longer applies after an appeals court stayed the order upholding it. The VA logged a record 3.1 million disability claims in FY 2026, and Katie reveals it is now running claims through AI. Social Security gets a 3.6 percent COLA for FY 2027 while the VA increase waits on Congress. And Minnesota became the fifth state to reach functional zero on veteran homelessness. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open: seventeen days to the polls 03:33 The DOJ sues California over 20,000 mail ballots 05:55 Tim Boivin: prelude is prologue, the guardrails are gone 09:54 Katie Chorbak: it is not all the states, Georgia invited them in 11:44 Bryan Winter: martial law does not cancel an election 17:38 Can the courts hold 21:26 The SAVE database and Florida's own SAVE Act 23:03 Voter fraud as a red herring 26:56 The Pentagon raises the Iran war death toll to 21 30:49 Concealing American deaths is dishonorable 35:30 What thanking a veteran for their service should mean 41:50 Does the media share the blame 46:06 Riyadh, the Houthis, and a war Congress never voted on 52:54 Rapid fire: the VA union contract is dead 58:08 3.1 million claims and the VA's AI problem 1:05:48 Minnesota reaches functional zero on veteran homelessness 1:13:07 Safety brief ABOUT THE SHOW The Smoke Pit is the live show of 50501 Veterans, airing Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8PM ET. Issues over party. Straight talk over spin. Questions for the panel at 50501vets.com/ask. 50501 Veterans is a nonpartisan organization and does not endorse any candidate or political party. This episode contains explicit language and discussion of veteran suicide. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 and press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line.

  3. Oct 15

    Can the VA Be Repaired? Richard Ojeda on Staffing Cuts, Claims Backlogs, and War Powers

    The Smoke Pit with 50501 Veterans · Wednesday, October 14, 2026 · Pillar I: Veterans Care, Rights, and Dignity Host: Tim Boivin, writers room lead, 50501 Veterans Substack Guest: Maj. (Ret.) Richard Ojeda, Democratic nominee, North Carolina's 9th congressional district Panel: Steph Money, Keith Davies, Bryan C. Winter THE SHORT ANSWER The VA has shed roughly 30,000 positions under this administration, most of it through voluntary departures and attrition, and as many as 35,000 more health care cuts have been reported as planned. The average wait for a mental health appointment is 35 days. This episode asks what that does to a veteran who needs to get seen, get treated, and get a claim decided, and puts the question to a retired Army major running for Congress in a district built around Fort Bragg. WHAT WE COVER Keith Davies, a retired Air Force captain who worked as a data scientist at the Philadelphia VA, breaks the losses into people: roughly 3,000 registered nurses, 100 physicians, 700 social workers, 2,000 claims processors, 1,500 schedulers. Then the human version. Ojeda on waiting in pain and going to a civilian doctor instead. On what a 35-day wait means when the problem is mental health. Steph Money, policy director, on cycling through three psychologists in a year at Bay Pines. The Oracle records system signed off in 2018 and still breaking. The disability tax on veterans medically retired before twenty years. The Take Care of America's Veterans Act, which 50501 Veterans opposes and which Ojeda had not read. Then war powers, the Caribbean strike and the Geneva Convention, and Bryan C. Winter pressing him on a resigned Senate seat and a seventeen-day presidential run. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open and the non-endorsement 02:30 Who Richard Ojeda is 04:25 The thirty-second pitch 05:46 What thirty thousand missing people actually do 08:42 Nurses, physicians, claims processors, schedulers 09:23 Inside the 35-day wait 11:03 When the wait is for mental health 12:31 Two thousand claims processors and 18-month claims 16:09 Three psychologists in a year at Bay Pines 20:55 Rural and urban VA care are not the same 22:33 The plan: fund it, zero cuts 25:46 The Take Care of America's Veterans Act 27:10 Why 50501 Veterans opposes the bill 29:11 Can it be repaired? The Oracle system 31:10 The disability tax on medical retirement 37:10 Opioids, and a Korean War vet who got addicted 38:39 War powers and the AUMFs 43:50 Medical cannabis and thirteen dog tags 46:39 The Caribbean strike and the Geneva Convention 51:05 Why should voters trust you 57:36 He voted for Trump in 2016 60:05 Beating the drums of war 63:20 AI medical assistants at the VA 67:01 Where to find him 69:15 Safety Brief ABOUT THE SHOW The Smoke Pit with 50501 Veterans is a live twice-weekly broadcast, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8PM ET, produced by 50501 Veterans, a veteran-led civic organization. Veterans from across the political spectrum argue current events against the oath they took. Issues over party. Straight talk over spin. 50501 Veterans does not endorse, oppose, or support any candidate or party. We cover issues, not campaigns. Guests and panelists speak for themselves. Questions for the panel: 50501vets.com/ask

  4. Oct 4

    SITREP: Bombing After the Midterms, Hegseth's Voter Stand Down, and 37 Wounded

    Recorded live Saturday, October 3, 2026. Thirty-one days out from the midterms. Iran sent a seven-day plan through Qatar to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president rejected it in public, then told aides he expects to start bombing again after the votes are counted. Katie, Carl and Bryan take that apart: whether it is a ploy to clear the news cycle, why Iran may be content to wait, and what a war decision timed to an election says to the troops still deployed. Then Pete Hegseth's voter registration video. The panel agrees troops should be registered and splits hard on everything else: the stand down ordered for no later than October 15, the Hatch Act problem with measuring unregistered troops against four blue cities, and where ballot harvesting starts when commanders are collecting paper. Also in this one: Cyber Command and the NSA sent to backstop a CISA that DOGE already guttedWhat the intel actually showed about Chinese and Russian meddlingTroops and DHS at polling places, and the NAACP's standing threat to sueWhy the SAVE ruling will likely have minimal impact this cycle, and the real risk afterA Georgia judge blocking DOJ access to the voter rollsThe Pentagon quietly adding 37 wounded, eight Marines hit in the Strait on September 14, and families not getting full benefits because we are officially not at warBowing versus breaking, and malicious obedience in the ranks Closing safety brief as always. Katie Chorbak, Carl Able and Bryan Winter. Issues over party. Questions for the panel: 50501vets.com/ask Join us: 50501vets.com

  5. Sep 29

    SITREP: Trump's Iran Threat at the UN, the Minab School Strike, and Deported Veterans

    At the UN this week, the President called it a choice: a deal with Iran, or "annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly." Congress never authorized this war. The House has voted three times to end it. The Senate has not moved. We start at the February 28 strike on the elementary school in Minab. 123 children killed. A school tagged as a military site off old intelligence. CENTCOM's civilian harm team cut from ten people to one, and nobody on it checked the target. Every one of us knows somebody is supposed to look twice. What happens when leadership decides nobody needs to? What does AI targeting fix, and what doesn't it fix? And what does it cost a military whose power came from being a moral one? Then the home front. Republicans breaking on the Iran war. Libertarians running under the No Kings banner. Federal agents and the Guard at the polls, and the NAACP suit to keep them out. Katie on the ICE stop she watched end with two people gone in seven minutes, and the day her own company's ICE policy hit her jobsite. Then the VA. Contract cuts made at DOGE's direction, and what they reached. Why Agent Orange and burn pit coverage was never funded to carry both. And the deported veterans and military families pushing for Parole in Place. We close with the Safety Brief. 0:00 Open 1:54 Deal or annihilate 4:21 Trump at the UN 6:12 Minab, the civilian harm cuts, and AI targeting 13:22 Republicans break on the Iran war 18:05 Massie, libertarians, and No Kings 21:07 Election defense: feds and the Guard at the polls 26:47 The NAACP suit to bar federal agents 30:19 ICE raids: two people gone in seven minutes 33:09 The day ICE comes to the jobsite 39:14 Veterans voting against their own interests 47:35 A Patriot missile or a vet's cancer 52:16 Deported veterans and Parole in Place 56:05 Safety Brief Referenced: Left Behind: April Watkins on Losing Godfrey Wade to Deportation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3NFnv35jWc Questions for the panel at 50501vets.com/ask Issues over party. Straight talk over spin.

  6. Sep 28

    Challenging Ed Markey: Alex Rikleen on Ballot Access, Party Gatekeeping, and What It Costs to Run

    The Smoke Pit with 50501 Veterans · Wednesday, September 23, 2026 · Pillar II: Democracy, Peace, and Constitutional Duty Host: Carl Able Guest: Alex Rikleen, former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts Panel: Bryan C. Winter, Steph Money, Brit Robinson THE SHORT ANSWER Starting a campaign is easy. A website, a treasurer, an FEC filing. Getting anyone to pay attention is the hard part. Alex Rikleen, a history teacher from Acton, challenged Sen. Ed Markey in the Democratic primary with no machine, no money, and no name recognition. He made 235 public appearances in a year, then withdrew on May 27, 2026 and endorsed Markey. Here is where the machinery stopped him, and what he would fix. WHAT WE COVER He wrote to 500 Democratic town, city, and ward chairs and heard back from fewer than 100. Soft pressure from the state party that never has to say no. What a statewide convention costs a candidate. Why a three-minute launch video took 21 hours. Then policy: multi-member districts with ranked choice voting, expanding the House, and whether an independent can win without being rich or famous. CHAPTERS 0:00 235 appearances and the question on the table 3:04 Why challenge a sitting senator 6:02 500 committee chairs, fewer than 100 replies 11:59 Gatekeeping from inside the party 21:09 Was it worth it? Putting Supreme Court reform on the map 25:43 How to start a campaign: FEC, treasurer, launch 29:19 21 hours for a three-minute video 31:05 Politics is not a solved game 37:52 Multi-member districts and ranked choice voting 42:53 Expanding the House 46:21 Independents and the two-party system 50:14 What it costs: conventions, merch, union printing 57:29 Why he dropped out and endorsed Markey 1:01:49 What he wishes he had known 1:05:23 Safety Brief QUESTIONS THIS EPISODE ANSWERS How do you get on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts? A statewide candidate needs 10,000 signatures and at least 15 percent of delegate votes at the party's state convention. House candidates need signatures but skip the convention. When does a federal candidate have to register with the FEC? Once you raise or spend more than $5,000, you must file a statement of candidacy within 15 days. Can multi-member districts stop gerrymandering? Rikleen argues that combining multi-member districts with ranked choice voting makes the map matter less, producing bodies closer to the population they serve. Cambridge, Massachusetts already elects its city council and school committee this way. Why did Alex Rikleen drop out and endorse Ed Markey? He said his path to winning fell to zero, and endorsing before the convention let him steer the delegates he had won toward Markey rather than Rep. Seth Moulton. ABOUT THE SHOW Live Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8PM ET. Veterans from across the political spectrum argue current events against the oath they took. Issues over party. Straight talk over spin. Guests and panelists speak for themselves. 50501 Veterans does not endorse candidates. Questions for the panel: 50501vets.com/ask

  7. Sep 26

    SITREP: Three Iran War Votes, Eight Articles Against Hegseth, and the Postal Ballot Rule

    Host: Carl Able, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC (Ret.) Panel: John Moses, Bryan C. Winter Three times in 2026 the House of Representatives voted to end the war in Iran. The third one passed on September 15 at 10:32 PM, 220 to 204. Not one of those votes can end anything, and every member who voted yes knows it. This episode takes apart three levers Congress and the courts pulled in one week, and asks which is a record, which is a rehearsal, and which is theater. The short answerCongress did not end the war. It passed a concurrent resolution, which never goes to the president, cannot be vetoed, and carries no force of law. A member filed eight articles of impeachment against the Secretary of War using the one procedure a single member can still force, and the House went home before the clock could run. The Supreme Court blocked the Postal Service ballot rule for this election only, on timing, without ruling on whether it is legal. Lever one: the vote that binds nothingRoll Call 307, H. Con. Res. 93, September 15, 10:32 PM. Agreed to 220-204, nine not voting. Democrats voted 213-0 in favor. Republicans voted 7-203. One independent voted no. Sponsored by Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran. The seven Republicans who crossed: Nancy Mace (SC), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA), Zach Nunn (IA), Tom Barrett (MI), Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Warren Davidson (OH), Thomas Massie (KY). Three of the seven were not there in July. Four voted for the July measure as well. Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution says forces shall be removed on a concurrent resolution. That provision has been widely read as dead since INS v. Chadha in 1983, which held that Congress cannot bind the executive without presentment. Only a joint resolution binds. The June and July resolutions are still sitting in the Senate. Nobody has scheduled them. Nobody has to. Lever two: eight articles and two legislative daysOn Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth from the House floor as a privileged resolution, which forces the House to take it up within two legislative days. He did not tell his own leadership. By Wednesday evening the House announced last votes at 4:45 PM and adjourned until after November 3. Legislative days only pass when the House is in session, so the clock never ran. The articles are still live. The vote happens when the House comes back. The eight articles as read on air: unlawful war, defying Congress, blowing the 60-day clock, intentionally causing civilian casualties, extrajudicial strikes in the Caribbean, retaliating against Sen. Mark Kelly over rules that do not apply to him, the removal of Maduro from his own country, and the Yemen operation with the Signal chat at the start of it. A privileged resolution is the one lever a single member can still pull without anyone's permission. Everything else that happened this week required somebody to schedule it. Lever three: a court order with an expiration dateThe same week, the Supreme Court refused to let the Postal Service ballot rule take effect for this election. Justice Kavanaugh wrote that there is "at least a fair prospect" the rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority, but that applying it to the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, because election officials do not have time to implement it. Read that carefully. It is a ruling about the calendar, not about whether the rule is lawful. The rule is still on the books and it comes back after November. Justices Thomas and Alito dissented. What this means for your voteNothing changed for November 3. Request your ballot, fill it out, send it in. If you can vote in person, do that. Check your state's rules before you go.

  8. Sep 20

    Amend It: Supreme Court Term Limits, the Electoral College, and a Bigger House

    We swore to defend it. Tonight we argue about fixing it. Seventy-seven percent of Americans say the system needs major change. Twenty-seven percent think it can actually happen. On the eve of Constitution Day, Carl Able, Katie Chorbak, John Moses, and Tim Boivin put three amendment ideas on the table and fight about them. One, a bigger House and a different ballot. Washington asked for one representative per thirty thousand people. Today it is one per 761,000, and the 435 cap is a statute, not a constitutional rule. Two, eighteen years on the bench. Article III says judges serve during good behaviour. It does not say for life. Three, every vote counts the same. The National Popular Vote compact sits at 222 of the 270 electoral votes it needs. No talking points. No consensus. Four veterans arguing in good faith about the document we all swore an oath to. Operation Roll Call is September 26. Show up.

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About

The Smoke Pit is a live veterans' roundtable from 50501 Veterans. Hosted by Katie Chorbak and Carl Able. Produced by Crayon Eater Media. Veterans, military families and guests take on the issues hitting the veteran community: VA care, deported veterans, war powers, elections, and what the oath still asks of us. Issues over party. Straight talk over spin. Live Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8 to 10PM ET, on YouTube and Twitch. The podcast episode posts after every broadcast. Candidates who join us are interviewed on the issues. 50501 Veterans does not endorse candidates. Questions for the panel: 50501vets.com/ask

Information

  • Creator
    50501 Veterans
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 50501 Veterans