Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen got ruthlessly trolled on TikTok during a livestream as he tried to speak seriously about the election results and viewers kept inserting the “turkey face” filter onto his head. “Can we stop with that? All right? I don’t like the stupid turkeys,” Cohen said while covering the camera with his hand. “Let’s just knock that stupid sh** off please.” “I did. I said I was leaving,” he continued, talking about his vow to leave the country if Trump won as one follower added the “laser eyes” filter. “And then the following day – get that through your dumb heads – the following day, I turned around and I said that there is no chance in the world that I’m leaving my country,” Cohen said as the turkey face filtered reappeared. “Thank you very much. All right? I’m not leaving anywhere. You leave. This is my country.” The turkey briefly disappeared then came back as Cohen kept covering the screen and trying to deliver his message in a serious tone. “And I have every right, every single right, within which to turn around — would we stop, so we can – all right, two seconds or we’re gonna end up blocking this idiot,” he said as a giant pompadour hairstyle and and glasses filter appeared over his face. Cohen made a disgusted sound and shook his head as a cowboy hat appeared next. The video went viral on multiple social media platforms, with most viewers commenting on how hilarious they found the whole thing. “Maybe I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old but this is the funniest video I’ve seen probably all year,” Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh shared on X. Maybe I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old but this is the funniest video I've seen probably all year https://t.co/YWq8i71b6x — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 8, 2024 Cohen had been discussing comments he made in September indicating that he would leave the United States if Trump won the presidency, which his former boss did do in a landslide victory on Tuesday. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ “I’m out of here. I mean, I’m already working on a foreign passport with a completely different name,” Cohen told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace at the time. “I don’t know how it’s going to work, as far as dealing with my wife and my children,” he continued. “I certainly don’t want them moving to where I’m looking to go.” Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to multiple crimes, including lying to Congress, and served prison time. He admitted earlier this year during Trump’s hush money trial to stealing as much as $60,000 from the Trump Organization in 2017 by not reimbursing an IT firm he had hired to rig polls.

Federal law enforcement officials foiled a second alleged Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump this week. The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against multiple individuals who were involved in plots to murder an Iranian dissident, two Jewish Americans, and Trump on U.S. soil. “There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department has charged an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump.” Prosecutors indicted Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran, on multiple charges, including murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, money laundering conspiracy, conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the Government of Iran. Shakeri remains at large and is believed to be inside Iran. If convicted on all counts he could face 100 years in prison. “Shakeri is an [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] asset residing in Tehran, Iran,” prosecutors said. “Shakeri immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or about 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction. In recent months, Shakeri has used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the United States to supply the IRGC with operatives to conduct surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets.” Prosecutors said that he hired two individuals to kill the Iranian dissident and the two Jewish Americans. However, with the elections approaching, the IRGC told Shakeri to pause his efforts to kill the dissident and the two Jewish Americans because they wanted him to focus on killing Trump. “SHAKERI indicated to IRGC Official-1 that this would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money,” the indictment said. “In response, IRGC Official-1 said that ‘we have already spent a lot of money [s]o the money’s not an issue,’ which SHAKERI understood to mean that the IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Victim-4 and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure Victim-4’s assassination.” During a meeting just one month ago with the IRGC official, Shakeri was instructed to have a plan in place to assassinate Trump within a week and that if he could not do it that Iran would put the plan on hold because they believed Trump “would lose the election and, afterward, it would be easier to assassinate” him after losing. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ Federal authorities arrested Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York, on Thursday for their alleged involvement in the plots to murder the Iranian dissident and the two Jewish Americans. “The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a designated foreign terrorist organization — has been conspiring with criminals and hitmen to target and gun down Americans on U.S. soil and that simply won’t be tolerated.” This is the second known assassination plot against Trump from Iran that federal law enforcement have disrupted.

Madonna joined a long list of celebrities mourning the fact that Donald Trump handily beat Kamala Harris to become the 47th president of the United States.  The pop singer headed to Instagram Stories, where she shared a photo of a cake that included a message saying, “F*** Trump.”  “Stuffed my face with this cake last night,” she wrote in text across the image. A second story showed a selfie and said in the text caption, “Trying to get my head around why a convicted felon, rapist, bigot was chosen to lead our country because he’s good for the economy?” Madonna had indicated she was voting for Harris last week, writing in a social media caption, “Paris was so FUN! It was hard to leave, but I had. to come home.to V.O.T.E. [Kamala Harris] For. President!!!!” The singer had also previously expressed her feelings about Trump at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., in January 2017, when she said she thought “an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”  MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ After getting pushback, Madonna insisted, “I do not promote violence and it’s important people hear and understand my speech in its entirety rather than one phrase.” “I am not a violent person,” the singer wrote on Instagram at the time. “I spoke in metaphor and I shared two ways of looking at things — one was to be hopeful, and one was to feel anger and outrage, which I have personally felt.” Other musicians and celebrities have been expressing their dismay at Harris’ big loss to Trump. Billie Eilish put on a show Wednesday night and addressed the election, saying, “I kind of couldn’t really fathom doing the show on this day, but the longer the day went on, I kind of had this just feeling of like it’s such a privilege that I get to do this with you guys and that we have this in a time like right now.” “I just love you so much, and I want you to know that you’re safe with me, and you’re protected here, and you are safe in this room,” Eilish continued, as The Daily Wire previously reported. Rapper Cardi B posted, “I hate y’all bad.” Singer Ariana Grande wrote, “Holding the hand of every person who is feeling the immeasurable heaviness of this outcome today.”

As a White House lawyer during the first Trump go-round, I was awarded the “trans” portfolio in 2019, to the extent it existed. I remember one thing vividly: We maintained an Obama-era regulation that required women’s rape shelters to accommodate trans-identifying men. Why? Lots to say, but essentially, bulldozing the deep state, the media, the medical establishment, academia, and corporatism required a clearer mandate. The Trump administration wasn’t silent by any means, weighing in on the side of Connecticut runners, for example, who asserted a Title IX right to women’s sports. Fast forward to 2024. Americans were bombarded with advertisements against Kamala Harris, who advocated for taxpayer-funded transgender procedures for inmates, and Colin Allred (TX) and Sherrod Brown (OH), who voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The WSJ labeled “progressive transgender coercion” the 2024 “sleeper issue.” But it wasn’t very sleepy. Instead, when anchors on the street asked black voters in Atlanta, Latino voters outside Madison Square Garden, or moms in focus groups, interviewees would frequently say they liked what Donald Trump said about getting men out of women’s sports. Today, Americans care about my formerly quiet “trans” portfolio. And not by accident. Independent Women’s Forum has made household names out of brave young women like Riley Gaines, whom the NCAA robbed of a trophy in favor of a male, and Payton McNabb who faces lifelong partial paralysis after a male spiked a ball at her head. The Daily Wire exposed the Loudoun County bathroom assault and the liberal school board’s refusal to care. Twitter, for its part, banned the popular Babylon Bee account after its joke that a trans-identifying male in the Biden administration, Rachel Levine, was “Man of the Year,” in part leading Elon Musk to ultimately buy Twitter to permit frank discussions of this increasingly salient issue. This salience is somewhat head-scratching to the Left, given that many voters probably don’t think trans ideology will affect them personally. But the issue motivated me for a different reason. Politicians who refuse to acknowledge male and female are untrustworthy. Because the sex binary is true, and treating sex as imaginary or fluid means a politician has shrugged off something we collectively value: the importance of truth. Progressives who hide the truth through deceptive language (“transgender woman”), false statistics (“testosterone suppression levels the playing field”), and bullying (“anyone who disagrees is anti-trans”) other themselves rather than using politics as a way to find common ground. The 72 million voters who just put Trump back in the White House were not just economic voters; those voters would have created a “red wave” in 2022, after all. They were not just border security voters; same deal. There was one new, central conversation in 2024: gender identity. On election eve, Megyn Kelly powerfully explained why she changed her mind: to get men out of girls’ sports. People who have no respect for truth or the reality of women have no business steering our country. Republicans are not the dog that caught the car, as President Trump has proposed a serious list of tasks including ending federal funding of schools that promote gender ideology; ending Medicare and Medicaid funding of hospitals that mutilate minors; and signing a bill defining sex as binary. MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+ Of course, it’s not all that simple. Presidents only have authority to act as granted by the Constitution or federal law, and “regulate gender ideology” is not so clearly laid out. Still, the power to protect women in schools falls under Title IX, and Medicare and Medicaid don’t fund hospitals that fall below certain standards. And there’s a lot of Obama and Biden mess to clean up. The Left will register its dissent in court, and wayward judges will issue misguided nationwide injunctions, despite conservative judges hesitating to issue them for four years. But the difference will be the fight, thanks to the American people registering their opinion. Americans are no longer quiet as women’s rape shelters house men with fully intact genitalia. They are no longer quiet as trophies and scholarships are stripped from women, and girls must undress before towering males in small locker rooms. And come January 20, 2025, neither will the new administration be quiet in the face of the radical erasure of sex. * * * May Mailman is the director of Independent Women’s Law Center (iwlc.org) and a former legal advisor to President Donald Trump during his first administration. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Episode Description This week’s positive news: Arielle talks about an innovative program called BirdReturns that pays local rice farmers to flood their fields to offer pop-up wetlands that give migratory birds a safe place to land, rest, and feed. Then, Karissa shares how Goodwill launched its first store inside Milpitas’ Elmwood Correctional Facility, which offers hands-on retail training to incarcerated women, preparing them for future work opportunities upon release. The Optimist Daily is a project of The World Business Academy. Donate link: https://www.optimistdaily.com/donate-to-support-the-optimist-daily/?gift=Y%20http://   Transcript  Theme music  Arielle  Hello and welcome to the Optimist Daily’s Weekly Round-Up. I’m Arielle.  Karissa  And I’m Karissa, and we’re working hard to put solutions in view and optimism in movement.  Arielle  All right, we’re back again with another episode of our podcast to share the solutions from the Optimist Daily this week. It has been quite the eventful week, right, Karissa?  Karissa  Oh yeah, it’s definitely been eventful here in the United States with the election happening and such. There’s also a three-day weekend this weekend, which is kind of nice because it’s Veterans Day.  Arielle  Oh yes, happy Veterans Day.  Karissa  It’ll be a good end to a chaotic week for sure.  Arielle  Mm-hmm. And when things are chaotic, it’s always a good reason to get straight to the good stuff—all the good news happening in the world. As usual, we’re going over the changemakers we’re covering in our Changemakers series that we have running until Thanksgiving.   This week, we are covering the Lowlander Center, which is a Louisiana nonprofit that supports coastal communities facing climate-driven challenges by providing sustainable, community-focused solutions like portable solar power and environmental advocacy. Their work emphasizes cultural knowledge, traditional ecological practices, and social justice, helping Indigenous and bayou communities achieve resilience. Through projects like their portable solar panel project, the Lowlander Center offers immediate relief and builds long-term sustainability for vulnerable regions, which we love to see here at the Optimist Daily.  Karissa  And this week, in the Changemaker series, we’re also covering Ridwell, a subscription service that makes it easy for households to recycle hard-to-dispose-of items like batteries, plastic films, and textiles through convenient doorstep pickups.   Operating in various U.S. cities, they partner with local organizations to responsibly recycle or upcycle materials that curbside programs often reject. By simplifying recycling, Ridwell helps reduce waste and fosters a greener community, one pickup at a time.  Arielle  If you want to learn more, then I suggest you go check out our Local Changemakers series that we publish every Friday.  Karissa  Cool solutions in our Changemakers series! I’m really optimistic about these, but we also had some other solutions on the Optimist Daily that I’m excited to get into. So, what caught your eye this week, Arielle?  Arielle  Actually, to introduce my solution, I have a little bit of a preamble. Let me tell you something fascinating about migrating birds. Every year, tens of millions of them travel along the Pacific Flyway, which is a major migration route that runs all the way from the Arctic down to South America. Birds like the western sandpiper, for instance, go from Alaska to as far as Peru, making stops along the way to rest and refuel.   But with about 95% of the wetlands in California’s Central Valley gone due to farming and construction, it’s getting harder for these birds to find a safe place to land during this epic journey.  Karissa  Oh yeah, it’s a pretty tough situation for them. It sounds like they need a creative solution or more rest stops on the Pacific Flyway, which I didn’t know was the name—that’s interesting.  Arielle  Yeah, exactly. Luckily, conservationists came up with an innovative program called BirdReturns, and it’s a partnership between groups like The Nature Conservancy and rice farmers in the area.   The idea is simple but brilliant: BirdReturns pays rice farmers to flood their fields at specific times, creating temporary or “pop-up” wetlands. These flooded fields give migratory birds a safe place to land, rest, and feed. That’s what the article “Migrating Birds Find Refuge in Pop-Up Wetlands Thanks to an Innovative Rice Farming Program” is all about.  Karissa  Pop-up wetlands—that’s such a smart way to use farmland. So, it’s kind of like these rice farms are doubling as temporary nature reserves?  Arielle  Exactly, and what’s really cool is that these wetlands are tailored to the birds’ migration schedule. So, when the birds need a stopover, the fields are ready for them. Plus, I just really like the name pop up wetlands. It’s like “pop-up restaurant” or like “pop-up shop.” Something kind of trendy to stop by. Karissa  Right?! That’s exactly what was in my head too.   Arielle  Conservationists even use data from a platform called eBird, where birdwatchers report sightings—we love citizen scientists! This data, combined with satellite images showing where there’s water, helps pinpoint the areas and times when birds are likely to need these habitats the most. So, they’re essentially renting habitat space on demand for these birds.  Karissa  That’s so high-tech! But how do they get these farmers on board with the program?  Arielle  They actually set up a reverse auction. Farmers bid on contracts to flood their fields, and the lowest bid wins. This makes the program efficient and affordable, plus it gives farmers a nice income boost. And some studies suggest that the birds might even be helping out the farmers by breaking down leftover rice stalks in the fields, which is a bonus benefit for participants.  Karissa  Oh yeah, that’s so cool. And I love the idea of birds helping with the cleanup. So how effective has the program been so far?  Arielle  Since BirdReturns started, it’s created over 120,000 acres of these temporary wetlands. Of course, that’s still a fraction of the original 4 million acres of natural wetlands that used to be in the Central Valley. But studies show these pop-up wetlands are effective—they attract two to three-and-a-half times more shorebirds than regular rice fields.  Karissa  But with droughts getting worse, especially in California, isn’t water availability a big issue?  Arielle  Yeah, absolutely. Water is becoming scarcer, especially with climate change making California’s droughts longer and more intense. During dry years, flooding fields is more expensive, and some farmers just don’t have enough water to participate. Timing can also be tricky—sometimes migration doesn’t really line up with the farming calendar.  Karissa  That makes sense. So how do they keep the program going with all these challenges?  Arielle  It’s kind of an evolving process, so they’re adapting. BirdReturns has started working with tomato farmers, for instance, whose season wraps up earlier in the year. That way, they can set up pop-up wetlands for birds arriving as early as July. And the program itself is constantly developing—they’re always using fresh data and feedback from farmers to improve, making sure they’re meeting both the birds’ needs and the farmers’ constraints.  Karissa  Yeah, BirdReturns isn’t just a quick fix; it’s more of an evolving partnership.  Arielle  Exactly. It’s a flexible, data-driven model that benefits both birds and farmers. It’s one of those rare conservation programs that shows we don’t have to choose between agriculture and wildlife. As climate change and habitat loss continue to impact migratory bird populations, BirdReturns is setting a hopeful example of how collaboration and adaptation can make a real difference.  Karissa  I hope to see it in more places. And I mean, you mentioned, Arielle, that tomato farmers are stepping in too, so there could be crossover between other crops or even helping other animals.  Arielle  Yeah, it’ll definitely spark some ideas for others working in this field… no pun intended I guess (laughs). I’m inspired and feeling optimistic about this, but it’s not the only solution coming out of California this week.  Karissa  Exactly. I have another story from California, too. Maybe I’m a little biased since I submitted these solutions to the Optimist Daily, but I was feeling inspired by my home state. So, here’s my solution: Goodwill’s new store inside the Silicon Valley jail offers hope and job skills.   Goodwill of Silicon Valley started an initiative by launching its first store inside Milpitas’ Elmwood Correctional Facility. This innovative program offers hands-on retail training to incarcerated women, preparing them for future work opportunities after their release. Participants receive training in cash handling, inventory management, and customer service twice a week. Myra, a 30-year-old inmate and one of the first trainees, said, “I’ll be released with a lot of work experience,” and this is actually her first job.  Arielle  Oh wow, that sounds like such a great initiative. How did this idea come about?  Karissa  Goodwill’s collaboration with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office started after discussions on how to better support people returning to society. With experience at the county’s Reentry Resource Center, Goodwill was well-positioned to develop this program. Trish Dorsey, Goodwill’s VP of Mission Services, suggested establishing a store to provide both training and clothing for women leaving incarceration.  Arielle  Wow, that sounds like an empowering plan.   Karissa  It really is. The store sells essentials ranging from shirts to socks, giving women a fresh start as they prepare to reenter society. For 46-year-old Sinica, one of the participants, the opportunity is unprecedented. She said, “To get that experience while in jail, it’s unheard of.” Plus, those who work in the store can later interview for positions at Goodwill stores after they’re released.  Arielle  That’s great—a nice pipeline for them to follow. Not only do they get work experience, but they also have a potential job waiting once they’re out. That’s so important for reducing recidivism.  Karissa  Absolutely. It’s all part of a broader vision for rehabilitation and reintegration. But the program’s impact goes beyond job training—it also builds confidence and a sense of purpose. Jessica Costello, Goodwill Silicon Valley’s VP of Retail, said, “Not only are we giving them work skills, but we’re also showing them that they matter.” Costello hopes this program will inspire similar initiatives around the country, describing it as “priceless” for how it teaches dignity and prepares women for life outside.  So, it’s really just awesome because Goodwill and the Elmwood Correctional Facility have developed a pioneering program that not only meets immediate reintegration needs, but also encourages wider discussions about recovery.  Arielle  I can imagine that being incarcerated for so long, it must be intimidating as much as it is liberating to reintegrate into society. And with a criminal record, it’s already difficult to find jobs. This is, as you said, not only good for their training in terms of skills but also giving them that confidence to just start a new chapter of their lives. I guess we should thank you, Karissa, for submitting these stories to the editorial team (laughs).  Karissa  Yeah (laughs), it was so fun to share these stories today. But we also had some other great solutions this week that you can find on our website, optimistdaily.com, including…  Arielle  Out-of-Body Pop creates safe spaces for neurodivergent music fans, How micro-meditations help reduce stress anytime, anywhere, Brazil fines meat producers $64 million over ties to deforested Amazon land, and How to spot a moon ring—a guide to lunar halos and other moonlight phenomena. What else do we have?  Karissa  Melting Antarctic glacier raises alarm, but Arctic sea ice project offers hope, Tips to unlock charisma for every personality, Native American Heritage Month and how to be an ally this Thanksgiving, and of course, the Changemakers of the week—the Lowlander Center and Ridwell.  Arielle  If you want to start your day off right, make sure to subscribe to our free daily newsletter to get our solutions straight to your inbox.    Karissa  Yeah, and we also have more on our social channels. You can find us @OptimistDaily on all major platforms, including Threads and Pinterest. The only difference is on X, where we are known as @OdeToOptimism.    Arielle  We’re a small team of optimists working hard to bring you positive news. If you want to support our mission of putting optimism into the world, click on the link in the show notes to find out how you can do that.  Karissa  And support doesn’t always have to be financial. Even just recommending our podcast to a friend, leaving a positive review on Apple or Spotify, forwarding a link, or sharing a solution on your socials—anything helps get optimism out there.  Arielle  All right. Well, thank you so much, Karissa, for sharing your time and energy and optimism with me today. It’s always a pleasure to go over the solutions that we have on the Optimist Daily each week.  Karissa  Yeah, most definitely. I’m looking forward to being back next week with some more solutions for everybody. Until then, bye!   The post Podcast Transcript November 8, 2024: Pop-Up Wetlands and Silicon Valley Jail’s Store first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

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